I'm not that surprised the earlier stock headers held up well and there weren't big gains. It seemed like a pretty decent design.
This was the same reason I ended up with the AFE shorties. I'm working on a build and am strongly considering the Edlebrock head.
I'd suspect that the later gen with the 2 part cast log manifolds may show more gain, but are even more constrained by the smaller exhaust ports in the 0331 head. An
article from some years ago showed good low to mid performance gains with the DT shorties of similar design on an otherwise stock system, but limited gains on the high end. That's consistent with my experience since installing these.
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I installed my 1.7 roller rockers before these on my otherwise currently stock motor. I know how my '04 responded to each and I'm curious to see next week's video.